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Audio CAPTCHAs Cracked; ReCAPTCHA Remains Strong

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the captcha-captcha-chameleon dept.

Falkkin writes "Ars Technica reports that audio CAPTCHAs consisting of only distorted digits or letters can be easy to crack using machine learning techniques. This includes most of the audio CAPTCHAs currently in use on the Web. The reCAPTCHA team has discussed their new audio CAPTCHA, which is resistant to this attack."

3 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. I'm sick fo CATCHA by theaveng · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It was okay at first, but now it's reached the point where it takes me 3 or 4 tries to finally guess the letters.

    It's become more hassle than it's worth. Isn't there a better way to stop bots from getting accounts?

    --
    FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    1. Re:I'm sick fo CATCHA by socsoc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A method I use is to put an input field with a name like "subject" in a contact form and then hide it via CSS. Then if that field is populated in the form submission, the server side drops the request.

      It isn't the most accessible-friendly method in the world, but once I started doing this, all spam submissions dropped out. It's not foolproof and it's just another step in an arms race, but I agree that CAPTCHAs have gotten out of hand. They are especially confusing to people who are not tech savvy and don't know why they are trying to decipher a spirograph drawing in order to do something simple on your website.

  2. Re:REPATCHA strong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you get it wrong, they'll temporarily start sending you captchas in which both words are known. The chances of a bot guessing both words correctly are minuscule.